In agriculture/horticulture many chemical materials used for improving plant health and productivity, are proving after many years, to have undesirable side effects. Leaving toxic chemical residues on vegetables, fruits or in soil are reported to be toxic to soil and to human health. Many man-made materials do not biodegrade and are proving dangerous to the environment by increasing soil and water pollution. Some herbal materials are found to be useful for increasing plant health and productivity. However, plants take long time to grow and produce the herbal material for commercial use. There is also a constraint on the availability of land to produce such a material. As it is, there is very limited land available for providing food security to increasing population. Under such conditions, microbial preparations prove useful.
In the prior art “Tea fungus” has been used to produce cellulosic Biofilm for medical use-for example as a temporary skin cover in burns and other injuries and the fermented tea left behind has been used as a health drink for human consumption in processes hitherto and described herein below. Acetobacter Cellulose Pellicle as a Temporary Skin Substitute. J. D. Fontana A.M. De Souza, C. K. Fontana, I. L. Torriani, J. C. Moreschi, B. J. Gallotti, S. J. De Souza, G. P. Narsisco, J. A. Bichara and L. F. X. Farah, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, vol 24/25 253–263 (1990). A bacterial strain with morphological properties to Acetobacterium xylinum has been cultured in glass vessels in non-agitated inverted sucrose and yeast water based medium for production of thick, smooth and floating cellulosic pellicles. The apyrogenic bacterial biomass, a minor component of the dried biofilm after inactivating by ethylene dioxide had been applied on exuding or bloody tissue. The biofilm displayed several advantages as a biological dressing.
Nature of plant stimulators in the production of Acetobacter xylinium (Tea Fungus) Biofilm used in skin therapy. J. D. Fontana, V. C. Franco, S. J. De. Souza, I. N. Lyra and A. M. De Souza, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, vol 28/29.341–351 (1991).
The beneficial role of certain plant extracts in cellulose synthesis was observed. In this work, plant extracts served as substitutes for conventional and co-nutritional sources as yeast or malt extracts. This invention was centered in the nature of compounds arising from such plants as Camellia (commercial tea), Paullina, Coffee (unroasted seeds), Theobroma (cacao) Kola or Sterculia (cola nut). These plants display, as a common feature, a high content of xanthine based substances. Because of the reduced amount requirement as supplement to carbon source, their infusions were used as low priced ingredients in media formulations. It was found that “tea extract” was a better supplement to ‘yeast extract” for producing cellulose pellicle.
Characterization of the “Tea fungus” metabolites. Phillips J. Blanc. Biotechnology Letters, Volume 18 (2), 139–142 (1996).
The symbiotic culture “Tea fungus”, traditionally grown on black tea with sucrose for 7 days gives a pleasantly sour and sparkling beverage under aerobic conditions.
The consumption of fermented tea was firstly practiced in 220 B.C. in Manchuria. It then spread to Russia. During the world war II, this beverage was introduced to Germany”, then in the 50's, it arrived in France and also in France dominated North Africa, where its consumption was quite popular. Presently, its consumption is popular in United States, this popularity is mainly due to its refreshing power, curative power, presence of vitamin B1, B2, B6 and the antibacterial properties.
Blanc, studied the metabolite formation by “Tea fungus” in presence of 0.1–10.0% sucrose containing media and growing the culture for a period of 0–12 days. The results showed that in the absence of sucrose, acetic acid formation reached the maximum value up to day 5, rapidly decreasing up to day 10. Gluconic acid formation reached maximum at about 7 days and remained steady up to 13 days. With increasing sucrose concentration, there was increase in the gluconic acid formation but decrease in the acetic acid and alcohol synthesis. At 10% sucrose concentration, ethanol concentration rose to a maximum of 1.34 g/l after 5 days of incubation and subsequently decreased. The acetic acid, which was converted from ethanol also, rose to a maximum value of (4.5–6.5 g/l) until the 15th day of incubation. He also found that the composition of different fermented tea preparations greatly depended upon the individual tea fungus used from different origins.
Another study, a patent WO 96/24680 (PCT/US96/01846), demonstrated that ‘Tea fungus’ or fermented tea, produced a material which had inter alia heat resisting and heat insulating properties. This material was used for several applications such as, a burn wound healing material, fire extinguishing material, protecting human body as a fire resistant coating material and as a desalinating material. The spent liquor was used a health drink.
In all these studies the aim was to use the fermented tea for human consumption as a health drink and the fungal biomass mainly as wound cover in the treatment of burns. The use of the said material as health stimulant has been reported.